GREENBELT, Md. (AP) -- The suspect in nearly 50 arsons in the Washington area pleaded guilty Monday to murder and other federal charges.
Thomas Sweatt, 50, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to first-degree murder in the death of Lou Edna Jones, 86, who died of smoke inhalation from a fire in her Washington home in June 2003. Sweatt also pleaded guilty to second-degree murder charges in the death of Annie Brown, 91. She died of smoke inhalation a few days after Sweatt set fire to her next-door neighbor's Washington home Feb. 5, 2002.
The fire that killed Brown was separate from the list of 45 fires that Sweatt admitted setting between March 2003 and December 2004.
Under a plea agreement, prosecutors in Montgomery and Prince George's counties in Maryland, Arlington and Fairfax counties in Virginia and the City of Alexandria, Va., agreed not to bring charges against Sweatt for several other arsons.
Sweatt faces a minimum mandatory life sentence when he returns to U.S. District Court on Sept. 12. He could also get an extra 300 years in prison for 15 charges stemming from the seven fires prosecutors chose to charge him with. There is no parole in the federal system.
Sweatt, a fast food eatery manager from Washington, has been in custody since his arrest in April. Authorities have said they linked Sweatt to the fires after collecting DNA from items found at four crime scenes, including Marine Corps dress pants found at a fire in Arlington, Va.
